Have a New Year

Well, another year is over, another year's gone by. I hope everyone had fun crossing over. I know I did. Here's my New Year's Eve in pictures.

I woke up yesterday morning and headed to the University to take my Chinese final exam. I think it went well. I'm just glad this class is almost over.

Lunch has always been just alright at the college. I tried the beer-flavored green tea. It was interesting, not completely beer-flavored, but I think it manages to taste somewhere between green tea and beer.

After lunch we had another culture study class, which was again dissappointing. I was dissappointed by the fact that the few of us who really have an interest in what we might be learning about are consistently hindered by the obnoxius and very vocal majority of ... I'm having a hard time deciding what exactly to call them. Let it be known that there have been all sorts of problems with this exclusively exchange student Chinese learning course that nobody (no one with any authority anyway) has been willing to address. I think it's a cultural thing though. I've been told that it is often the case here that if someone has a problem with you or disagrees with you they won't bring it up to your face, especially women and the class is run by women.

So what the class ended with yesterday was the very pretty little calligraphy teacher telling us in Chinese (and a not so good English translation by another of the teachers) that at first she thought we were all very bright and interested young adults. She went on to say that she thought it was great that everyone had decided on their own to come to Taiwan for a year for the reason of learning Chinese. She then tried to explain how she couldn't understand why were acting so much like children. The rest I've forgotten because I was trying to cry.

The people that were supposed to be hearing this message were talking and laughing the entire time. The people that have tried so hard to fit in here suddenly felt like they wasted their time. The director of the whole Chinese Language Education Center, a little woman who has been far to nice, also had a message for the people who weren't listening. She told us she received a letter from the Ministry of Education, never quite mentioned what it might be about, but I assumed it was not good news. She talked about how some kids were smoking on campus and generally being rambunctious. She later said that when she was asked by the Rotary Club about certain students' behavior she said that they were very hard-working and bright even though she doubted it. She said she tried to treat us like adults and then took the blame for receiving the dissappointing letter. She admitted that we're all foriegners at some point, that we're here representing our countries and our families and our Rotary Districts.

I took issue with everything those two, too nice women were saying. It tears me up that seemingly no one actually takes this seriously. That's what I think prevents a lot of these other exchange students from growing from this and being more adult.

One thing that gets me is that I didn't come here for the sole purpose of learning another foreign language, but rather to figure out what it means to be Taiwanese in the 21st century and to make my world a little rounder.

So, anyway...

New year's eve was great. The night club plans fell through, so I ended up walking with my dad to Taipei city hall where there was a concert going on before the big fireworks display on Taipei 101. I think about 8 o' clock I headed to the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall where some of my friends were hanging out before the spectacle.

Marathon Man

This one goes out to my bro's in Who's Ready for the Cave?.

Last Monday, I played my mandolin in front of one of my music classes. It went okay. I strummed out "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" and then just grooved for a little while. I was under the impression that there were to be other performances that day, but as it turned out the performances were today instead. So, at the end of last week's class, I agreed that this week I would play some songs on the guitar for everyone (but not Bon Jovi, not really my style).
I don't have my guitar in Taiwan, so I had to borrow one from a girl in class. I haven't really had many chances to play a guitar in the four months that I've been here, which is all right, I mean, I have my mandolin and I've picked up the ErHu fairly quickly, but there's something about the guitar (acoustic or electric) that makes everyone want to pay attention even if you aren't Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix.
Anyway, so they give me this guitar, it's nice, it has all it's strings, and then I had a little time to practice. The teacher assumed I had something prepared to play, which was sort of true, you know as an Eagle Scout I'm always prepared. I went into the little practice room next to the classroom and sat down on a bench with this girl's guitar.
I strummed out some chords and then started playing the only songs I really know, and it took me back. This little practice room had suddenly become my Dallastown High School's auditorium, where Who's Ready for the Cave? took Second Place only two men strong. I found myself in that little coffee shop, where our show was cancelled, but we played anyway and made $8.50 (our first paid gig). I was at the JCC mumbling in a microphone and pretending I was fronting an all girl band from a future where Chinese was the international language of choice. I was in the Blue and White Cafe fiddlin' around to the tune of "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" and watching the ho down of a lifetime.
I played "Marathon Man","New Year's Song" and "We're All Singing the Same Song". I should say "we" played those songs today, up in front of a class of fifteen year-old, Taiwanese students that still made me nervous. Sam, Vince, Eric, if you felt something today at around 2:35 in the afternoon, just know that it was part of you jamming with me over here.
I know somebody got a video.

I hear it's chilly in Pennsylvania

Whilst everyone to the west of me is feeling cold on the outside and warm on the inside, sharing stories 'round the hearth, and thinking about "peace on earth", I am eating these home-baked cookies, wearing this awesome hat from Salvo, and thinking about when would be the best time to rip into this box of Hershey's chocolate bars sitting next to me.
It's crossed my mind lately, that (like my winters previous) time has slowed to an almost unbearable point. Maybe that was a little dramatic. It's good news though, because (like my Januarys previous) things begin to move more quickly. The phrase "seconds passed like hours" is suddenly swapped and I'm left with a bunch of old school papers in my backpack.
In a more "here's the news" sort of fashion, my Christmas was okay. No one really takes a day off to celebrate, but there was a lot of that "international Christmas spirit" (you know, peace on earth, good will toward your fellow human beings). So, I did get some very nice Christmas presents, which I hardly expected. A CD player from Counselor Maggie (most useful), a puzzle from my friend Leo (which depicts an antique map of the world, most apt), a German film which I recieved in a gift exchange from my friend Freya (it's Goodbye Lenin, for all you German film fans), and finally, a very proffesional set of watercolor pencils from my sister YoYo (it's like she's been my sister forever).
In much less recent news, a couple weeks ago my sisters took me to WuFenPu, a shopping district where they sell clothes and things found in XiMenDing (where the youth hang out) for cheaper. Long story straight to the point, I now find myself wearing very cool jeans, and most importantly, a red leather jacket. I've never felt more smooth.
Last weekend I went with my oldest sister to see my three year old niece perform with her preschool class. There was never anything cuter than those little kids (especially my niece, who is now tickling my feet). After that we went up into these mountains overlooking the ocean (both mom, who likes the ocean, and dad, who likes the mountains, would be able to have their vacations). As I looked at the gourgeous grass covered mountains and the dark ocean with fog covering the horizon, all I could think was "I made a good decision."
And even now, as I miss everyone I've left and think about how I'm going to miss everyone I've met here, I realize that as long as I live I'll never be homeless.

Earthquakes, Haircuts, and Things That Creep Me Out

I am loving the city. I was thinking, the other day, how there are an untold number of people who live their entire lives in one place, never seriously considering what life might be like elsewhere. I'm happy to say, I've considered it.

Last week, I was in Chinese class when a small earthquake occured. I only realized it when my four-wheeled chair began to roll slightly, as though suddenly we were all out in the ocean. I had a similar experience yesterday at 5:25 AM when I was woken up from my dream of being in a row boat by the actual feeling of being in a row boat (or a row bed). My dad told me later when I asked him about it that he hadn't felt anything. One, he was asleep; and two, his room is in the first floor apartment. Mijn is on the fifth, where the building actually sways.

Can you read Dutch?

On Sunday last, my oldest sister took me and my niece to XiMen Ding, where the young folks hang out. Our main purpose was to get some haircut action. And we did. I now have a perfectly Taiwanese look.
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The day I started writing this, the following things were creeping me out:

1. People telling me that I'm cold. (I wonder what they kow that I don't.)
2. "Did you hurt your nose?"
3. Has this busdriver been driving the same bus for 100 years?
4. What was scratching around on the floor the other night?
5. The smell of sterility eminating from the hospital down the street.
6. Walking down the street with mopeds whizzing by.

These things still give me strange thoughts.

The New Place (now with more interaction!)

I have never been anything but the oldest kid. I have also never had sisters. I have also never been an uncle. Now I am all three.
I have three older sisters, one of which has a daughter of her own.
But let's flashback a little while, to the beginning of this "new chapter", if you will.

It was Saturday, the 30th of November, quite a beautiful day actually. My Swiss friend Sarah was having a birthday party at her house way out in Neihu, which was very much an enjoyable experience. However, I was looking forward to that afternoon. My things were packed and I was ready to trade spaces.
Mom showed up at four o' clock in her big Lexus (maybe it's an SUV, I don't know), my things stashed in the back, and after some goodbyes we began our journey back into the city, my friend Adam running alongside waving. "He's crazy," I explained to the first of my four moms (maybe it would be better to say "one of my many moms").
Close to half an hour later we arrive at my new residence. I've visited before for various reasons, and every time I've thought to myself how nice it would be to spend some real time there.
It's a relatively large apartment, actually two. They own the first (ground) floor and also the fifth. I think they have over nine televisons, if that describes the kind of environment I now find myself inhabiting. But enough about their things.
When I arrived, they took me up to the fifth floor apartment, where I could drop off my things (only half of which I had actually brought with me from America) and be given a brief introduction to my room and the bathroom. I met Yo-yo, who is the second oldest sister,on her way out, and then we travelled back down to the first floor for dinner.
Joy, mom number one, hung around for awhile to chat and make sure I would be alright. After she left, the youngest sister (she's maybe 20 or 21 years old) took me out to the nearest night market, but first we both had foot massages. She thought it hurt a lot, and I did too, but I was better at grinning and bearing it. I found out that the right side of my body is a lot more sensitive and tense than my left side. Weird.
So, we toodled around the night market. She was looking for Japanese DVDs because she likes to practice her listening skills. She lived as a teacher in Japan for a year. Well, we found the DVD place and purchased five DVDs for $500NT (pretty cheap, like $18US), one was the Tenth Kingdom, which I might have to take back to America. Later, we played a game where you try to hook little shrimps to barbecue. They were alive, which made things difficult. In, the end, after breaking about twenty hooks (which is really wht you're paying for), I managed to catch seven of the little guys. My sister caught one. She was really afraid of them though.
I don't have enough time to explain everything that's happaned in the past couple days, but I am sure that I won't be lonely, or alone, very much at all with this family. Where my little brother and my host dad of the last family were short on words, my sisters and niece always have something to say.
Did I mention I am pretty close to the heart of the city? It's great, I have street noise, people yelling, cars, buses, school bells, I really enjoy it, there is so much going on. I've never lived actually in the city before, so I think my exchange is getting a whole new dynamic.
Still having a blast, hope you all are as well.

Things I'm getting myself into. A fractured List.

• Cappucino
• Wearing scarves when it really isn't that cold
• Reading Dutch/Flemish books
• Cute things
• Being chill with most things (as in not taking everything so terribly seriously)
• Taking notes
• Classical music (again)
• Japanese things
• Toodling around
• Beat-boxing when I'm alone (well, even when I'm not alone)
• Not making plans

Ghosts

This is all gonna sound like incoherant mumbo jumbo, and you'll all swear I've gone crazy, but I have reason to believe that, in Taiwan at least, ghosts are present.
When the Filipino housekeeper first explained to me, in broken English, that she feels the presence of a spirit in our apartment, I played it off, convinced she was just talking at me. The next time she mentioned it, she had "proof". She told me how she cleans the bathroom (in what we call "the Master Bedroom") making sure that there isn't any water in the sink or hair on the floor. Everything clean, she leaves the room to work elsewhere, but when she returns, there is hair on the floor and water in the sink, maybe even more than what she cleaned up before. She emphasized to me that no one goes in there, except for her, all day, and that the room isn't drafty at all. She also mentioned that she has to struggle to close my little brother's bedroom door sometimes. Says that it's as though there was someone on the other side pulling it open, and when she checks to see who it could be, there is no one there.
I didn't really take her words very seriously at first. I blamed the wind or her very vivid imagination, especially since she's stuck inside for days at a time. It was not until a few mornings ago that I thought there might be some truth to what she keeps saying.
I woke up that morning, as muc as I didn't want to, and put on my uniform and headed into the bathroom. When I return to my room, I discovered the computer's mousepad on my bed and my pillowcase to be missing. I could explain the pillowcase (Angie had taken it to be washed), but the mousepad? I was sure I hadn't touched it. I later asked Angie about it and she said that yes, she had taken the pillowcase, but she knew nothing about the mousepad.
Anyway, I think the ghost likes me, and Mom went to the temple and stuff, so it isn't a problem.
My fellow exchange students have had similar experiences.
The thing about ghosts is the unknown. That's what people are afraid of. Not knowing what it is that is happening and not being able to get substantial proof about what you believe. I think ghosts exist in Taiwan because so many people here believe that they do. There's a lot of power in belief.